Help with the Basics

Oregon Food Bank, United Way of the Columbia-Willamette and NW Natural are asking you to join them in raising money for hunger, housing and heat this winter.

Your donation will be divided among the three organizations. One-third will go to Oregon Food Bank, one-third to United Way’s Community Safety Net Fund for housing and one-third to NW Natural’s Gas Assistance Program. Last year, the campaign raised more than $25,000.

Forty percent of kids in our region live in low-income families according to the Census Bureau’s 2011 American Community Survey. In an average month during the last year, the Oregon Food Bank estimates 270,000 people in Oregon and Clark County, Wash., ate meals from emergency food boxes. Of those, almost 92,000 were children.

United Way focuses on breaking the cycle of childhood poverty in our region, and a strong safety net, including short-term rent and mortgage assistance, is a critical part of that.